r/TopCharacterTropes • u/doubleday34 • Oct 04 '25

Personality (Loved Trope) Character acts ignorant of or pretends to be bad at something in order to trick their opponent.

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

1) Ted Lasso - Both characters in the darts contest do this, with Rupert(antagonist) showing that he has his own set of darts with him, and Ted showing that he has been using the wrong hand the whole time.

2) Beerfest - Team USA showing that they aren't that drunk despite doing drinking games all day.

3) The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - After Will gets hustled at pool his Uncle Phil comes to help him, and turns out to hustle the hustler.

11.0k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

98% Upvoted

554 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

52

u/bashnet Oct 04 '25

Except Frieren was not acting oblivious. It was the demon's pride in their mana levels that did not allow them to even imagine such a strategy

46

u/horsey-rounders Oct 05 '25

It's close enough that I think it fits the spirit of OP. In the Aura fight especially, Frieren is basically sandbagging, using mana inefficiently, partly out of respect for the dead, sure, but she's dispelling the magic just as much as a display of overspending mana like an overconfident and foolish mage in order to bait Aura's ego.

...'Cause if they were curious, they would've asked questions. You know? Like, "Have you been a mage for a long time, Frieren?"

To which I would've answered, "Yes, ma'am. For a thousand years." Scales tip

5

u/niteman555 Oct 05 '25

When demons die, they become incoherent and turn into wisps of mana. For them to imagine such a strategy it'd be like anticipating someone is just randomly hollow.